# How many square miles did the tsunami destroy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-square-miles-did-the-tsunami-destroy/283419>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 6, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-square-miles-did-the-tsunami-destroy/283419 "2005-01-06T17:55:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-square-miles-did-the-tsunami-destroy/283419/1 "2005-01-06T17:55:51Z")

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It’s hard to get a feel for how large the land masses are in the satellite photos of the  
disaster. Are there estimates of how many square miles of land were “destroyed,” ideally with breakdowns of how relatively urbanized they were? Also, how large is that portion of Banda Aceh that was completely leveled?